The Journal · Volume I · MMXXVI

Essays & Notes on the considered wardrobe.

The lead essay · ON KNITWEAR

A jumper is not made to hang

Knitwear is a structure of loops that gravity slowly undoes, which is why it belongs folded in a drawer, rested between wears, and washed far less often than you think.

Read the essay

Table of contents

  1. Essay N°

    VI 01 November

    ON MOTHS

    Moths, calmly

    The clothes moth is small, shy and entirely predictable, and knowing what it wants is most of what it takes to keep it out of a wardrobe, and to deal with it without panic if it gets in.

  2. Essay N°

    V 01 November

    ON STORAGE

    The box you will open in May

    Putting a season away is the one time in the year that clothes are left entirely alone for months, which is why what goes into the box, and how, decides what comes out of it.

  3. Essay N°

    IV 16 August

    ON SEASONS

    On the end of a season

    The summer wardrobe has already been assessed; the folding-away is only where you read the result. On the season as the honest unit of measurement, the difference between the genuinely occasional and the merely hopeful, and why next June you will shop for clothes you already own.

  4. Essay N°

    III 12 July

    ON RESTRAINT

    On the pause before buying

    The most valuable act in a wardrobe is not a purchase but a delay. On the asymmetry of regret, the questions worth asking in the gap between wanting and owning, and why the considered wardrobe is built mostly of the things you did not buy.

  5. Note N°

    VII 18 June

    THE WELCOME

    Welcome to the Atelier journal

    On considered consumption, why we built Atelier, and what to expect here.

  6. Essay N°

    II 11 June

    ON ENDURANCE

    On the seven-year wardrobe

    Most garments leave within two years; very few endure beyond seven. On what the survivors have in common, why care is the secret variable, and how to make the long horizon visible while you are still inside it.

  7. Note N°

    VI 04 June

    ON LETTING GO

    The garment you forgot you owned

    The dress at the back of the wardrobe is, functionally, a dress you do not own. The shelf space is the cost.

  8. Note N°

    V 19 May

    ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE

    Letting the algorithm read your closet back to you

    On AI as a mirror rather than a stylist, and what it means to be told, in your own words, what you wear.

  9. Essay N°

    I 04 May

    ON THE SELF

    On the closet as autobiography

    A wardrobe is the most honest document we keep: written involuntarily, dated by purchase, edited only by attrition. On what the closet records, and what it costs to read it.

  10. Note N°

    IV 27 April

    ON TRAVEL

    Packing as an act of editing

    The suitcase will not accept your aspirations. Which is exactly what makes packing useful.

  11. Note N°

    III 18 March

    ON COLOUR

    A wardrobe is a colour palette you haven't admitted to

    Lay every garment on the floor and the wardrobe confesses: it is three colours, maybe four. Everything else is a ghost.

  12. Note N°

    II 22 February

    ON VALUE

    The cost of a sweater, divided by the years you will wear it

    Cost-per-wear is not really about money. It is about attention, and it is the most honest number a wardrobe keeps.

  13. Note N°

    I 15 January

    ON STEWARDSHIP

    On the inventory of a life

    Why most of us couldn't name what we own, and why that's the first problem of a wardrobe.

End of contents · Volume I

The studio

Composed in a converted barn in Cobham, Surrey.

One person, one barn, a great deal of cashmere. Atelier is privately held and made here, for considered closets everywhere.

Meet the maker
An ink drawing of The Long Barn: a timber barn with dress forms in its tall windows, a lantern by the door and a tree beside it.